A typical vehicle has at least one access door. Such a door typically has a latch mechanism for maintaining the door in a locked state until access into or egress from the vehicle is required. The latch mechanism is typically actuated by an outside door handle to gain access to the interior of the vehicle.
Vehicles are sometimes subject to unauthorized entry and theft. To prevent such unauthorized entry while permitting authorized access, on at least some of the vehicle doors the latch mechanism is provided with an externally actuated lock having a key-lock cylinder. Attempts to gain unauthorized entry into the vehicle may include triggering the door latch mechanism by forcibly manipulating and even extracting the key-lock cylinder from the door.